The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not see any grounds for recognizing Holodomor [the Famine] of 1932-1933 to have been genocide on ethnic grounds.

This was stated in a commentary given by the Ministrys Press Department “in connection with the discussion in the Ukrainian press of the so-called Holodomor of 1932-1933”

“In the Ukrainian press there is discussion of the “Holodomor” of 1932-1933. The idea is frequently presented that the famine of this period was not simply deliberated provoked by the leadership of the USSR, but was directed exclusively against the Ukrainian people”, the commentary reads.

“Archival material on this subject show that the mass famine of the beginning of the 1930s was indeed to a large extent caused by the policies of the leadership of the Soviet Union at the time. However, it is entirely clear that it was not carried out on ethnic grounds”.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers that “we should be more balanced in our treatment of such complex and painful issues of our mutual history, and not allow them to be politicized”.

The Ministry says it should be recalled “that in 2003 at the 58th session of the General Assembly of the UN the majority of members of the CIS, including Ukraine and Russia, as well as many other states, issued a joint statement expressing deep sympathy for the millions of Ukrainians, Russians, Kazakhs and representatives of other peoples who were victims of the famine of those years”.

“For all the tragedy of those events, there are no grounds for calling what happened genocide on ethnic grounds. This statement was circulated as an official document of the UN”, the Russian Ministry notes.

The commentary states that “today in Russia people recall with grief the tragedy which took the lives of millions of Ukrainians, Russians, Kazakhs and representatives of other peoples of the Soviet Union”. “This is our common pain and common memory”, the Ministry asserts.

The document also states that on 8 November during a meeting of the RF Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov with Ukrainian leaders, “a principle agreement was reached on further development in studying the given issue by historians from both our countries.”